Bestselling Scottish crime author

DEVILish ills

Been a fairly quiet week for me. Got up to about 38% of the latest draft of DEVIL IN THE DETAIL but then I had to be in London four days this week. I get most of my writing done on the train here, so I lost 90 minutes per day. That said, I did get to walk into work through the city of London in 15 minutes and avoid the hell of the Tube, other than the horrific switch at Bank on Monday morning and Thursday night.

The other thing that has hampered progress is trying to stop myself getting these stupid colds. I’ve traced them (latest theory anyway) to overindulgence in caffeine. And when I say overindulgence, I think I’ve got a sensitivity to it. I’m not drinking ten espressos a day, more like five cups of tea – albeit strong, mash-the-teabag-to-the-side-of-the-mug, proper builder’s tea – but cutting it down to one first thing and maybe another seems to help get the sleep. I find that I don’t need the caffeine to keep me going through the day like most seem to and if anything I’m more on my game than ever. Not having to get up five times during the night to go the toilet or thinking about stupid work things seems to have a helping hand. I’ve been eating better, too – whatever you think of London, it is amazingly good for food, especially at lunchtime. I’m addicted to wasabi and their Sweet Chilli Chicken or Chicken Spicy – delicious big pots of rice with Eastern fusion curries ladled on the top, and less than a fiver so I can expense them, hur hur. And there are so many burrito bars in London – the many Chilango’s and the Clerkenwell Road Flying Burrito Bros are the best I’ve found so far.

I’ve had a long-running battle with my sinuses – sinusitis – which meant that my sinuses would close up and put pressure on my brain and be absolute agony for weeks. I’ve managed to get over it with a long course of antibiotics (which knackered me – I’m allergic to penicillin), and now I’m entering the undiscovered country of hayfever, streaming colds and having to avoid the air conditioning on planes.

Anyway, enough about me, my belly and my ills… The bottom line is that I’ve recovered and I’m going to head straight into finishing this book. I’m getting so much good praise for GHOST IN THE MACHINE from readers that it’s really motivating me to get DEVIL out there soon. Health warning – I’m not going to write book three in six months…